The competition for an eCommerce business is rising by the day. Businesses are now no longer facing a challenge in taking their products online, but actually getting people to their store and shop from them.

Yes, no matter how good their store looks, what products they have on offer and how many discounts they are running, converting their visitors into customers is a challenge that even the top most eCommerce businesses face today.

So how do you make sure your store doesn’t suffer the same way (or as much)?

Simple. You give people what they are looking for.

If for a minute you thought of the discounts and sales you’re running – no, we’re not referring to those.

The consumer market of today is actually seeking for businesses who care about them. Who are willing to go the extra mile to offer them a seamless customer experience even post purchase. But most importantly, they’re not looking at getting these promises from you.

This the online shopper generation that likes to do their own bit of research before engaging with an store. The research usually includes checking out the store’s social presence and most importantly, what people are saying about it – their products, services and after sale services.

Simply put, your target customer is actually looking for social proof and if you want sales, that’s exactly what you need to offer them.

How can your eCommerce store use social proof to boost its sales? Let’s take a look!

Show how people are using your products

I can’t help but start with user generated content. The reason being, your store could make models showcase products in the best way possible – but the most genuine one to a visitor is seeing people like him use it. It is more real and helps them get a better idea of how the product looks on different people.

For instance, Koovs has a KoovsxYou section wherein they pull in pictures shared by their customers wearing the products purchased from them. Each of these posts are unique and definitely serve as the best social proof for good their products are.

Let them know how loved the product is

Another way to convince a store visitor to purchase a product is show him how loved it is by others like them. It is using the same psychology as behind those Instagram posts that gets thousands of likes, and end up grabbing your attention too – well, because so many people like it!

The best example in this case is ModCloth. Right below the product name, they display how many hearts (likes) the product has received from visitors and customers so far. The more the likes, the more are the chances of the product getting sold out and higher are the chances of a visitor wanting to make the purchase before it does get sold out!

Get your customers to review the products

Continuing on the point above, it is very important to let the visitor know that your product is actually good. No matter how many campaigns you run or what messaging you use, the best way to convince a visitor are using reviews from existing customers. Even if it is just a line about their experience with the product, it can do wonders for your sales.

We are going to take ModCloth as an example again here. For the product we used as an example above, they have a list of reviews below by those who have purchased it before. Some of them have even happily shared clicks of it.

Make use of celebrity or influencer endorsements

We all have that one person we follow blindly as our fashion icon. Be it a celebrity or a popular blogger, every online consumer is inspired to make a purchase by someone apart from the general needs. But being inspired isn’t enough, they need an assurance that they are putting their money in the right place and hence they will go to their inspirations to seek out where they purchased the products from.

This is where celebrity or influencer endorsements come in. For instance, Puma uses Cara’s endorsement right on their home page. She is an inspiration to a lot of young women and the brand knows exactly how to make them join their list!

Embrace the bad reviews as well

You might want to show your store visitors only the good side of things. But is it being really truthful with them? If you really care about your customers and want to show them that, you need to assist them in making an informed decision. Which means you will need to display the good and the bad reviews of products on your store. Let them decide for themselves which one is more contextual and which one they should be believing.

For instance, I love shopping from Amazon simply because they always show me the good and bad side of the products. Helps me make better purchase decisions. I usually take a count of how many bad reviews are present and how many have good things to say about the product.

You might think why would a customer really need so much information to make a purchase decision. But the truth is, the more information he gets, the better decision he is able to make and the more likelier he becomes to be happy with it.

In the end, if the customer is not happy, your eCommerce store will get a bad name in the market and that’s certainly not something you want!

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Vanhishikha Bhargava

Content Marketer at Exit Bee. Most of the times found trying to create compelling copies for blogs and digital campaigns, keeping a watch on what's happening on social media or ranting on Twitter. At all other times, not found.

Have you been facing difficulties convincing people to buy from you? Since the conversion rate plays a huge role in determining your performance, this can be a huge problem.

If you wish to find out where you are going wrong, allow me to help you out using this infographic. I’ve noted down some of the most effective methods for marketers to boost their conversions. Here’s a brief insight to some of the things you will learn from the infographic below.